York College Hosts Geography Fair

More than 100 elementary and middle school students from York and the surrounding area participated in a cultural geography fair, hosted by York College on Friday, December 6.

The learning experience was immersive, as participants enjoyed food, music, and games while learning about the people and cultures of Mongolia, Greece, Ireland, Fiji, Laos, Haiti, Oman, Romania, Nepal, Ethiopia, Peru, and the Dominican Republic.

The participants visited stations about each country where they interacted with college students who shared fun facts and answered questions. At each station, the youngsters collected flag stickers to fill their geography fair passports. They also enjoyed learning games, activities, and a taste of the country's language at many of the stations.

The event was the capstone project for a cultural geography class taught by Christi Lones, assistant professor of history.

Senior YC student Emily Lutz was one of the class members. She said that interacting with the children made all the work of preparing for the event worthwhile.

Lutz was presenting on Peru. "Since they teach Spanish at the public schools, many of the kids that came through already knew the basic Spanish we were going to teach them," she says. "I thought that was pretty cool."

Over all, the research reminded Lutz that the world is vast. "There are so many different kinds of people in the world. It was a great reminder to me to have a global perspective and not be so focused on the people and places I am familiar with."

Beth Ericson, district administrator for York Public Schools, attended the fair with a seventh grade geography class from York Middle School. "I was very impressed," she said, describing the event as "fantastic."

"The students were excited and engaged. We're very thankful for the great relationship that York Public Schools have with York College."